Megamergers

Interesting piece from the FT about the super-acquisitions of the last six months. Not counting last rumours about SalesForce.com.

After the financial crisis, so this counter-narrative goes, companies suspended payouts to investors and looked inward to aggressively cut costs. Even as balance sheets improved, executives remained timid and turned to share repurchases and dividends to keep shareholders at bay.

Now with shareholders increasingly sceptical of the record levels of capital returns, companies are taking advantage of market conditions to take financial engineering to the next level — by buying their rivals.